Roller hearth furnace



A2 Sheets-Sheet ll Nov. 19, 1929. R. M. HoRTvET v ROLLER HEARTH FURNACE Filed Sept. 28, 1928 0N n .Nan Mv um l wm Vm Zhi/enfer.' i? M Hor-Zwei'.

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- In ven for: YR M Hoffi/eff'.

Patented Nov.l 19, 1929 RICHARD M. HORTYET, F MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, ASSIGNOR T0 MAIER MANU- FACTURING COMPANY, OF MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, Av CORIPORATIION ROLLER HEARTIH FURNACE Application filed September 28, 1928. Serial No. 809,032.

My invention relates to roller hearth furnaces, and particularly to furnaces for heating rounded castings such as couplings. An object of the invention is to provide a device of this character having a plurality of different sized rollers in the bottom thereof whereby castings of different sizes" will be adequately supported and prevented from sagging while they are passing .through the furnace and are being heated therein. An-

other object is to provide a support for said rollers with provision for preventing the support from being buckled or misplacedby eX- pansion and contraction tending to throw the rollers out of their proper alinement. An-

other object is to provide means whereby the castings may be conveniently fed into and discharged from thefurnac'e.

The full objects and advantages ofmy inlvention will appear in connection with the detailed description thereof, and the novel features of my inventive idea will be particularly pointed out in the claims.

In the accompanying drawings which il- 2i lustrate a practical embodiment of my invention, f

Fig. 1 is a longitudinal vertical sectional view of the furnace. Fig. 2 is an enlarged fragmentary top plan view of the rollers thereof. Fig. 3 is a view in transverse section on the line 3-3 of Fig'. 5. Fig. 4 isra view in transverse section on the line 4-4 of Fig. 5. Fig. 5 is a fragmentary side elevational sectional view.

Referring to the construction shown in the drawings, the numeral 10 designates in general the walls of a furnace having suitably arranged openings 12 .for the introduction of heat.1 The furnace is provided with a heat resistant Hoor 14 in which a number of transverse `metal I-beams 16 are embedded.

T'he beams 16 have'upturned flanges 18 to which one end of U=shaped metal Ymembers'- 2() are attached by cross rods 22 which pass through the flanges thereof and through the flanges 18 as will be apparent from Fig. 4.

The other ends of the U-shaped members 20 are not secured to 'the flanges 18 as will be understood from Fig. 5. From the latter figureit will also be understood that the bottoms of the members 2O are offset upwardly at the ends to form portions 24 and 26 which t over the upper flanges ofthe I-beams `16. The shoulders 28 and 30 of the end portions 24 and 26 are spaced from the sides of the upper flanges of the beams 16 while the end portions 24 and 26 are spaced from each other. Since as previously explained the end portions 24 are not secured to the flanges 18 of the beams 16, it will be understood that ample provision is made for expansion and contraction of the metal members which have c been referred to, The upturned flanges of the members 20 'provide bearings for a plurality of shafts 32 to which are secured pairs of outer rollers 34 and pairs of inner rollers 36, the latter being considerably smaller than the rollers 34. In alternation with the shafts 32, the members 2() support a plurality of shafts 38 to which are secured pairs of rollvers 40. lt will be noted that the rollers 40 are not only intermediate in size between the rollers 34 and'36 but each roller 40xis' arranged between a large roller 34 and a small roller 36. The purpose of this arrangement will be understood from Fig. 3 in which C, C,C2 and C3 designate round or cylindricaly castings which are progressively larger in size. From this figure, it will be observed that different sized castings will be adequately supported by the rollers as the castings travel through the furnace. Adjacent the receiving end of the furnace, thereare a num- -ber of reciprocating pushers 42 attached to the forward ends of arms44, the other ends of which are pivoted to the upper ends of swinging arms 46, the lower ends of which are pivoted to a fixed member 48. The outer ends of crank arms 50 are intermediately pivoted to the arms 46, the inner ends of these crank arms being pivoted to a wheel 52'lwhich may be driven from any suitable source of power. The castings to be heated are placed ahead vof the pushers 42 which move them through the furnace at the desired rate of speed dependent upon the speed -of rotation of the wheel 52. At 'the discharge end of the furnace, there is an opening provided with a chute'54, the opening'being normally closed' by a counterweighted door 56, which opens when the castings slide down the chute. As will be seen in Fig. 2, the different sized rollers are close together in overlapping relation so that the stock Which is being fed through the 'furnace is maintained in position Without tipping.

I claim:

1. A roller hearth furnace comprising an enclosmg structure, a plurallty of shafts 1n the bottom thereof, a pair of large outer rollvers and a pairl 'of small inner rollers mounted said shafts, and a pairv on alternate ones of of intermediate sized rollers mounted on cach of the mtervenmg ones of said shafts, each of said intermediate sized rollers 'being arof'said large rollers and ranged between one one of -said small rollers. l

2. A roller hearthfurnace comprising an enclosing structure having a refractor bottom, a plurality of transverse metal eams embedded in said refractory bottom, a plu? rality of longitudina metal supporting members extending between said beams respectively, the ends of said membersv being spaced fromv each other with one end of each member attached to the adjacent one of said beams andthe other end supported for free movement, and a plurality'of rollers carried by said supporting members.

3. A roller hearth furnace comprising an enclosing structure having a refractory bot- '4 tom, a plurality of transverse metal I-beams embedded in said refractory bottom, a plurality of longitudinal metal supporting mem-l bers extending between said beams respectively With their ends offset to overlap the beams, said ends being spaced from each other' With one end of each member attached to the adjacent -one of said beams and the other end supported for free movement, and a plurality of rollers carried by said supportin members.

n testimony whereof I hereunto ax my i signature.

RICHARD M. HoRTvET. 

